Is Karnataka Election Crisis a Victory for Democracy?

The megastar Rajnikant recently said, according to the Constitution, majority should be proved in the assembly, the Congress-JD(S) is going to do it, and I see this as a victory for democracy.

Is Rajnikant right? Is the Karnataka election drama a victory for democracy? A win of people who are allegedly to have all the power under the political system of democracy? Let us see.

Democracy popularly is defined as a “government by the people, of the people and for the people”. It basically is a rule of people over themselves! This claim of people ruling over themselves means “We” are our own rulers/bosses. Is it so?

Firstly, this type of thinking makes a logical fallacy of “collective thinking”. The reality of our world is that of an “Individual”. Only individuals exist and act. Any collective notion like people, community, society, company, group etc., are made-up notions which do not have any real existence. No group act. Once we remove this logical fallacy of collectivist thinking, the picture of democracy becomes clear. In any polity there are number of individuals. Now, at the same time these individuals can either be political leaders and so rulers/bosses or they can be ruled subjects. One person at the same time cannot be both a ruler and ruled subject.

If the Indian democracy is “of the people” then what is the chance of an average Indian citizen to become a ruler in his lifetime? For most it is zero. Political dynasties, what I call “democratic dynasties” exist in India. Politics is a career for politicians. It is not a civic duty to be carried out only once in a lifetime and then retire to a civilian life again. Democracy as originally defined and practiced by the Greek city states like Athens was very different from what we see today. Their democracy was only designed for the free citizens and not for a vast slave population which was the backbone of their society. It was meant only for a small population of say few thousands. Every individual free citizen had a real chance of becoming an administrator for a year, which was the usual term in office, and they were part of the citizen assembly which had the ultimate power in that it must be consulted before passing any new law. The present democracy is no way near to this Athenian democracy.

Politicians are representatives of people argument is also dubious. Firstly, the population of India right now is 1,352,371,993 (and counting). There are total 545 Loksabha members representing this 135 crore plus population. This means, there is 1 representative MLA per every 24,81,417 Indian citizens. Can 1 person represent 25 lakh people? And above all, can someone truly represent someone else? Can Narendra Modi represent the will of 135 crore Indians? How these so-called representatives are going to represent you and me when they don’t even know us? Can they or individuals represent themselves better? The answer is obvious.

Not only that, as the public choice school of economics has shown, politicians are as selfish as any human being and more. Politicians seek power because they want to use that power to fulfill their selfish ends. They are not peoples’ agents. The area of politics is a quintessential of the “principal-agent problem” where the so-called voting principals are forever trying to ensure that the selfish agents work for them. This political governance problem is perpetual without any satisfactory solution. This is so because the system of the state is designed to rule by the rulers and not to take care of the ruled as commonly believed.

None of these political parties are working for the people. They all follow socialist policies of central planning which necessarily means imposing their own wills on billions of Indians instead of allowing those billions to live their lives according to their own plans and wishes. There is no real choice for people here. Whether you vote for this or that party, you always end up with socialist busybodies who will impose their own wills on you. Is this real win of people? Hardly.

So if democracy is identified with the will of the people then the Karnataka election drama once again is a win of rulers and loss of ruled. Actual demos (common people) lost no matter who came to power.

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Madhusudan Raj

Dr. Madhusudan Raj is an Austrian School Economist. He presently works as an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Department of Human Resource Development, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat. He is the founder President of the Mises India Institute.

4 thoughts on “Is Karnataka Election Crisis a Victory for Democracy?”

PIsays:

Implied by USA free gun laws is the logic that people have right to revolution if the government errs too much[American declaration of Independence]. India has been a backward march even leading to relative disenfranchisemnt

Consider example of Bangalore in 2014 –
Bangalore city and Bruhat (areas surrounding Bangalore which are newly developed) Bangalore has 28 MLA seats. Bangalore and Bruhat Bangalore has one crore population.
Karnataka has six crore population.
Karnataka legislature assembly has 224 seats.
Population per seat in Bangalore = 357,143
Population per seat in Karnataka apart from bangalore
=( 6-1) crores/ (224-28) = 255102
Disenfranchisement ratio of Urban Voter = 255102/347143 = 0.73. If other urban centres are taken into account in Bangalore, the ratio is expected to fall further. If Ratio is equal to one, there is no disenfranchisement at all.
[Disenfranchisement ratio = Per seat population of Karnataka apart from Bangalore divided by Per seat Population of Bangalore]
The system has not been able to correct itself, hence it has subverted itself. Why did emancipation take place? Political parties, state has emancipated themselves from democracy by the vehicle of reservation policy.That is because stable VOTE BANKS are formed. India was never a democracy – it was Ochlocracy[mob rule] where by definition individual rights are murdered. Socialism, unlike voluntary charity, introduced into constitution during emergency [with BJP/RSS in jail] is by definition legal robbery.
Other fact supporting my claim that India is an Ochlocracy and not a democracy
a)Where else in the world is INDIVIDUAL right of movement murdered as in India – Bandhs are routine in India. Governments which are in power were openly declaring bundh [now they do it tacitly]. Also there is Gherao – where a mob “captures” an INDIVIDUAL. Pious directions notwithstanding, HAS SUPREME COURT OR ELECTION COMMISSION BANNED THESE PARTIES FROM contesting – truth is then ALL parties will be banned!
b)India has not ratified[made into laws] the 1988 resolution of UN against torture sharing the space with countries such as Notrh Korea and Sudan.

There are two choices compensation or real democracy
1) allow freedom to buy and sell votes
With insurance of free gun laws. Mind you both are freedoms. Random shootouts are so small in number that only a fool will take insurance againt it if offered by any company
2)Random pick of candidates by computer system as suggested by some in articles in Mises website. I feel it should have insurance of free gun laws.

Gun industry is an excellent recession proof industry serving need for self defense. Also free gun laws is right to revolution (as stated by USA declaration of Independence if the goverment errs too much

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